Walter White | Angels Bark

This post is part of the Blood, Boobs and Carnage Blogfest. The blogfest is hosted by Alex Cavanaugh (who came up with the name) and Heather Gardener. The rules are simple: On May 18, 2015, post about a movie, television show, book, or all three that falls into the category of Blood, Boobs, and Carnage. (Or just Blood and Carnage or other mixture.) It can be any genre that fits the bill – fantasy, science fiction, action, adventure, western, thriller, etc. Post the badge and visit other participants.

Sounds fun. So I joined up, along with 70 other people.

When I read the word “carnage” the first scene that popped into my head was the ending scene from the critically acclaimed AMC series, Breaking Bad.

I didn’t get into Breaking Bad until the final season. I binge-watched all the other seasons and, like millions of others, was completely hooked. In fact, I was even a “Breaking Baddict”: I won a Breaking Bad Beaker through the show’s contest (the contest was featured either on the show site or the show’s Facebook page, can’t remember now). Here’s my keepsake beaker:

The final scene was a one-man carnage, a bullet-strewn endgame perpetrated by the sheer genius of Walter White, a once meek and mild-mannered chemistry teacher who, through a chain reaction much like that in chemistry, morphed into the villain for whom we rooted and cheered. (Actually, I rooted for Walt but I, like many others, moreso wanted to see Jesse come out a winner).

The New York Times article on the series finale of Breaking Bad summed it up like this: “Walter White died of course, but first he ran the table of revenge, settling score after score with mathematical precision. He went out with a big finish: his ingeniously rigged machine gun mowed down the entire Aryan Brotherhood gang in a fantastical killing spree that was almost like a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie.” Yes it was!!

It was a great scene. So good that even during the airing of the finale (aptly titled “Felina”), I re-watched from the moment right before the car trunk pops open until the dust settles, oh, probably three times before settling in for the rest of the ending. I loved Walter’s foresight and genius. The rigged machine gun was purely brilliant and a total surprise that the viewers didn’t see coming. I didn’t anyway. Did you?

The execution of the ending was peppered with fabulous shots of the aftermath: the machine gun in the trunk still rotating as a small fire burned through the riddled rear quarter panel of the car; the Neo Nazi who was playing with the remote lounge chair, now dead, his body continuing to go up and down to the sound of the automatic chair motor in the otherwise eerily quiet scene.

And the final song was a perfect pick for the storyline: Badfinger’s Baby Blue kicks in with the lyrics “Guess I got what I deserved” as the camera watches Walt spending the final moments of his life in seeming introspection; the lyrics “a special kind of love” kicks in as he fondles the cooking mask and strokes the meth lab’s sleek equipment. Exceptional choice for the final tune!

Although there aren’t any boobs my pick, there is blood and carnage. Here are a few of the final minutes of the critically acclaimed series, from the finale episode “Felina”, chronologically in three separate videos:

Felina: Walt and Jesse Say Goodbye (aka The Shootout Scene):